Monday, June 15, 2009

This week's Monday Mystery Backlist title comes courtesy of Naomi Johnson. Whew! So glad she could take over for me this week as I'm headed up to Ann Arbor to Aunt Agatha's and Michael Stanley. Naomi's choice for this week is VERTICAL RUN by Joseph R. Garber.

Successful business executive Dave Elliot has a daily routine. Each morning he kisses his wife goodbye, jogs through the streets of Manhattan all the way to his 45th-floor office on Park Avenue, then showers and dresses for work. But one day everything changes because on that day, everyone Dave meets will try to kill him. Everyone, from the company president to his wife to the janitor. Dave would like to understand why, but he's trapped in a 50-story office tower with armed guards waiting for him at every exit while mercenaries are doing a floor-by-floor search. Author Joseph R. Garber wrote articles on technology for Forbes Magazine and was also a writer for the AT&T in-house magazine. VERTICAL RUN was his second book. Garber died of a heart attack in 2005, at age 62.

VERTICAL RUN appeared in hardback (ISBN 978-0553100334) in 1995, from Bantam Books, and in paperback (ISBN 978-0553573926) in 1996, also from Bantam Books.

Crap! My TBR list just increased by another book! See ya when I return. Happy Reading!

1 comments:

Oh, another great one! Vertical Run was such a fun, unexpected thriller. I read it years ago (yes, the real hardcover), and it's still a fond memory. IIRC, the author (perhaps recommended by publisher/fan requests) added a small addendum to the original ending (which was the one I first read). Years later, on someone's web site, they wrote about the change in the ending. A couple of years ago, Mr. Nostalgia listened to the audiobook of VR (unfortunately, it's only available in abridged form) and finally caught Garber's later ending. I won't spoiler it for folks--they'll just have to read it themselves ;-).

It's a real pity Joseph R. Garber passed away way too early. I really enjoyed the limited books he produced. I think I have Rascal Money and In a Perfect State left to complete his line. And his unabridged Whirlwind audiobook is one of those great narrator/author pairings that I live for. Thanks for bringing this book, post, and series, Jen.

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